ISI Brotherhood Podcast

104. The Counterintuitive Way to 10x Your Life

• Aaron Walker & Kevin Wallenbeck

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"Most people are looking to cut–how can we make just a little money? It's all about the bottom line." Are you running yourself into the ground every day to make things work? Most business guys are working overtime to make the extra dollar and 10x their financial situation by the end of the year. Some are overworked just to make ends meet. 

How can these guys 10x their lives? How did Big A succeed in having several successful businesses by the age of 50? Today's episode is all about making the most of your life–and how to do it when you're in the trenches. 

Key Takeaways:

  • The paradox of rest and growth
  • 3 ways that seem counterintuitive to making your life better
  • Does less really equal more? 
  • How and why should we value rest when we're already burned out?

These counterintuitive strategies aren’t just business tips; they’re life-changing methods to enhance personal satisfaction and family life. We challenge the conventional 10X growth mindset, urging you to aim for holistic improvement as a businessman, husband, and father.

By prioritizing what truly matters and minimizing distractions, you can achieve a deeper impact.

Iron Sharpens Iron Community: https://isibrotherhood.com/community
LinkedIn Group: https://www.viewfromthetop.com/group

If you want to hear more speakers like this every month and be with the guys on the call, join the Iron Sharpens Iron Community today: https://www.isibrotherhood.com/isi-community

Connect with Big A:
View From The Top Website: https://isibrotherhood.com
The ISI Newsletter: https://www.isibrotherhood.com/newsletter
Big A’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronwalkerviewfromthetop/

Speaker 1:

Hey everybody, welcome back to View From the Top podcast, where we help growth-minded men who desire momentum in their business, their family and their finances get through the valleys and up the mountain to their very own view from the top. A quick reminder and a thank you to the ISI community for supporting this episode today. If you want to be connected and engaged with a growing group of growth-minded Christian businessmen and leaders who are also making informed, vetted decisions through a biblical lens, then go check out the ISI community for yourself at isibrotherhoodcom. That's isibrotherhoodcom, and you can use code POD30, that's P-O-D-3-0, on the payment page and we'll give you 30 days for free, just for listening in with us. I encourage you to go check that out. All right, let's get rolling. Let's get Big A in the studio with us. Big A, you ready to roll Come?

Speaker 2:

on, wally man, I'm doing good today. It's really good. It's a beautiful afternoon and I couldn't be happier to be here. So good to see you, man. Hey, what about Aubrey's volleyball game the other night? That was fun, wasn't it? We got to participate in my granddaughter's volleyball game together. You know I've got to ask you an accountability question, though. I offered you some chocolate. I'd stopped and bought some chocolate and you turned it down. Just that quick, well, just that quick Well. Five minutes later, looked up, you're eating a bag of potato chips Like what was that about?

Speaker 1:

I know it was probably worse for you than the chocolate would have been. I was like what is he doing? Oh, it's so funny. Well, okay. So first of all you offered the chocolate and I was like I can't eat that, like I didn't expect that we were going to be there that long in my brain.

Speaker 1:

So like I was like I can't eat chocolate, we're eating dinner in like an hour and a half, and so we had to stay a little bit longer, which was totally fine, and so I needed something, or else I was going to eat the chocolate.

Speaker 2:

I heard you took care of the Greek dinner that you had afterwards. Pretty good, though.

Speaker 1:

That Greek dinner was legit, man, that was a great place, bill my son-in-law said he had an 18-inch long burrito or whatever it was.

Speaker 2:

He said he couldn't eat but half of it. Yeah, it was good. That is so good.

Speaker 1:

I will say we obviously worked together. I'm the founder of Iron Sharpens Iron a view from the top. And I came on a few years ago and our families have become intertwined over the years. Your daughter became good friends with my wife and and they're still good friends today, but she married my brother Isn't?

Speaker 2:

that crazy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so what's funny now is that like uh, you know, we have, your granddaughter is my niece. Yeah, and so we show up at these like sporting events, like and it's just like oh, that's right, you know it's like. And it's just like oh, that's right, you know it's like it's good, it's really.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's going to be a whole episode on its own, but hey, do you remember watching Muhammad Ali? Like, did you ever watch?

Speaker 1:

boxing at all. I have to admit, I was never, never got. I mean he was. I mean I was a kid, if anything. My dad talked about him a lot, though.

Speaker 2:

My dad loved Muhammad Ali. That's the way I feel that this episode is going to be today. Muhammad Ali would say you know who was it? Sugar Ray Leonard said dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Well, this is a left hook and Muhammad Ali was yeah and he did that.

Speaker 2:

That's what we're going to do today, because we're going to flip some things on its head and talk about some counterintuitive ways that we can be successful, and some of it's going to resonate with some of you.

Speaker 2:

Some of it's not, but, man, I just want to dive in just for a second In this episode. I really want to talk about how prioritizing rest and investing in relationships and really embracing the simplicity can multiply your life's impact. It can impact the success that you're going to have, but more importantly than anything is the satisfaction that you're going to get out of life. And these counterintuitive strategies, when they're aligned properly with your core values, it just ensures that you grow, not just as a businessman, but as a husband and father, and y'all all know that we're big on family. We want to be sure that you grow and you make money and do those things, but, man, we don't want you to do it at the expense of your family, and so I thought it'd be really cool today to talk about some of these counterintuitive ways that we can really kind of 10X our lives, if you will.

Speaker 2:

Nice, because a lot of times you think about 10X as like just straight up hustle if you will Nice, because a lot of times you think about 10X as like just straight up hustle.

Speaker 1:

Money yeah, I think about money.

Speaker 2:

My 10X, I'm like, I'm like 10 times next year what I made this year, and I don't think about being a 10 times better father or 10 times better husband or maybe 10 times better individual right Me as a person and I thought, man, it'd be fun to talk about some of those things today. I love it.

Speaker 2:

Hey by the way, how do you do on some of these things? We're going to talk about prioritizing rest and renewal right out of the gate, because I think it's important to prioritize. Yeah, I think it's number one, because if you feel terrible and you've not been renewed at all, I mean you can't get anything done. So yeah, what about you? How do you prioritize rest?

Speaker 1:

I have seasons right. I know we've talked about rest of the past.

Speaker 2:

Let's talk about this season right now. This season right now yeah, how do you do?

Speaker 1:

Man this season right now. So I do make sure that I go, I go to bed and get as much sleep. You know we have a, a weekly accountability, a weekly kind of progress report, that that I use, and and one of the questions on there is you know, did you get enough sleep this week? And so I actually find it interesting how many guys struggle with that. Like, I actually don't really struggle too much with that, I have to make sure I get a certain amount in the course season, which is what.

Speaker 2:

What's a good amount for you?

Speaker 1:

I have to have eight hours. Yeah, I can go to bed. I can close my eyes at 9.55, fall asleep by 10, and my body will wake me up at 6. It's like I don't even need an alarm clock for eight hours.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I don't use an alarm either, but I'm a six-hour person and if I really really do well, it'll be seven hours, and I've regulated my sleep and kept up with it for 20, 25 years and I average a little over six hours a night for like 15 years. But I've noticed that it's taken a little bit of a toll and so I've increased that. It's not that I don't want to sleep longer, it's just I wake up and I can't go back to sleep. My mind just races when I wake up and so, yeah, I'm doing better, though about an hour better. So seven hours. But what about extended?

Speaker 1:

rest. So, yeah, I think about rest in terms of, like you know, sleep. Obviously I think about rest in terms of, like you know, sleep. Obviously I think of rest that actually is routine for me. So, for example, like, if I have my routine in the morning where I get up, you know, make coffee, do some stretches, sit down with my Bible for a half an hour, you know, read whatever that is Like that's actually, I know it seems like stuff I'm doing, but it's rest, uh, to be able to prepare myself ahead of time, right. Prayer is part of that. Uh, you know some meditation prayer for me it's, you know it's time to have a conversation, talking with God and and trying to listen, sometimes more than I'm talking, um, but that's all part of the, that's part, you know, all part of part of of resting for me.

Speaker 2:

I get nervous when I rest. We always said we'd be honest on this podcast, right, and so I'm just being straight up honest with you. Floyd Dawson said that I'm addicted to activity and it's really tough for me to sit there with nothing to do. It's easier for me to rest if I'm away, but it's also easier for me to rest if I'm like doing something that doesn't cause a lot of strenuous activity, like I love to fish. I mean, everybody that follows me knows I love to fish. I'm on the lake quite a bit and I like to do it early. That's restful to me, that's. You know. My mind can relax, but if I'm just sitting there on the patio like if a leaf fell, I'd have to go pick it up and throw it in the yard.

Speaker 1:

Oh man, no, I'm opposite. I have to like, yeah, if I get in my routine in the morning, I could sit there and read my Bible and pray journal for three hours and it's like, oh my gosh like I actually got to things.

Speaker 2:

So how do you rest then, though? Yeah, like, how do you get? Well, what's restful to me? This is restful to me, like Robin and I love sports, and so we're watching some kind of sports every night together, like our empty nesters. Obviously, if I'm not at the gym or at the ballpark with one of my grandkids, we're watching a sporting event, whether it be baseball, volleyball, football's our big thing.

Speaker 2:

We watch football four nights a week during football season. You know we love to do that. That's restful for Robin and for me, because we're always teasing each other. She'll pick a team, I'll pick a team, and you know, so we're. You know we're not doing any gambling or anything. We may introduce that, though, this year. No, I'm just kidding, we're not going to do it, but that's restful to me. Or just hanging out with Robin grilling out, you know, or something, but just to sit down. A lot of people see that as rest. What about? I want to get through a number of things here, so I've got some questions around rest and renewal. Sabbatical was a new concept to me a few years ago, like I'd never taken an extended period of time and I didn't do it by choice. Well, I did do it by choice, but it really wasn't by choice, like I hit the wall.

Speaker 2:

Too much activity addictive activity made me take a sabbatical, but it was very helpful and so then I did an elective sabbatical and I'm teaching some guys now to do an elective sabbatical kind of test your businesses. It also helps you as an individual. Here's the thing that I learned more than anything while on a sabbatical is that I didn't realize how shallow I was thinking until I didn't have anything else to think about, and it allowed me to go deep in my thoughts, because we're so tied up running our businesses and taking care of our families and kids and grandkids and activities. But when you take all that away and you strip away your email and you strip away, you know, social media, you're like, well, I got some space, Like, what is it I really want to think about? At a much deeper level and, to your own admission, when I came back, I was different and I did some things differently and I made some really hard choices and over the course of the past two years I've made even more difficult choices as a result of that sabbatical.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, thoughts around extended time. I think of, you know, when we're busy all the time, just constantly going, going, going, going, I think we essentially they're like, you know, building blocks and we both still yet, at the end of the day, only have so much capacity. You know, we were just on the this last episode of the forge, which, if you didn't, if you didn't listen to that yeah, it's, it's, it's amazing. I think it'll actually coming up, maybe next week it's coming out. So be sure to listen to that. But we did that recording today.

Speaker 1:

And you know, here's a guy that basically created. He's an inventor and it's like invention and discernment as part of his working genius. So he's really good at like figuring out processes and create, but he created all this work for himself that he gets frustrated doing and it leaves no time for him to actually do what he's good at. And so we do that in our lives. We create all these busy building blocks that we stack up and it consumes all of our time and we have to manage them. And then the things that we want to do that are even more important we can't do now Because we've essentially filled up our, you know, used all of our time to manage the stuff that we've created for ourselves.

Speaker 1:

And so I think a sabbatical is nice, because it essentially takes away the building blocks. It takes those away, knocks those down yeah, maybe not all of them, I'm sure you still had some relationship, ones that you kept up and whatnot Right, but allowed you to pull back and say, man, I'm pulling way back. Yeah, it allowed you to pull back and say, man, I'm pulling way back, and I can see how that would feel like a counterintuitive way right to 10x our lives, whether that's in our businesses, whether that's in our relationships, whether that's in our personal pursuits, like whatever it is. We have to have the mind space, if you don't create margin.

Speaker 2:

You're going to get sick. You're going to hit the wall. Yeah, we have to you can't think clearly You're going to get sick, you're going to hit the wall yeah, we have to. You can't think clearly You're going to get foggy, you get overload, you get anxious at that point, yeah, it's not good. So, wally, what would you tell a guy right now that's 30, 35 years old and he's like man I got to work 12, 14 hours a day.

Speaker 1:

There's no way today about taking a day off I don't know if it's a day off, if it's a couple hours, like, you've got to start somewhere, right? Uh, if ideas, if, if something's gonna change, something has to change. So you can't, you can't expect to have something different. What, what's the definition of insanity? Is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different result. So I don't care if it's an hour, three hours a day, a month, a week, I don't really care.

Speaker 1:

The point is is like, what can you do? Let's not talk about what you can't do, let's talk about what you can do. And so what is the next best decision you can make about finding some space in your life that's going to be beneficial for you personally, for your relationships and for your business? Like, what is it? Don't just let this pass by. I encourage you right now. If that's you right now, and you're like man, I'm burning the candle at both ends, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, I got, I got. I'm telling you right now, man, it's what? Is there a quote? Something about? Uh, something about like, if the enemy can't make you something, he makes you busy.

Speaker 2:

If he can't make you bad, he'll make you busy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, if he can't think about it for a second, the enemy can't make you bad, he'll make you busy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And so we can be busy doing a lot of good things. And there's a lot of guys out there that are working 14, 16 hours weeks that I guarantee. They have some living beliefs about what's possible. They have profitable distractions, right. They have a service that they've added to their business that causes them to work twice as hard for half the profit, and they think they need it. Right. We tell ourselves this right. So there's some things you can start whittling away from that, but you got to think about what's the next best step thing you can do and make that commitment.

Speaker 2:

Wally, I'll put a challenge out there to guys that's been working for a little while, because I did this to myself about six years ago. I was working five days a week, you know, and my schedule is pretty rigorous and I said, you know what, I'm going to take some time off, regardless of what happens. Like I was at a different stage in my life than some of you that are listening today, but I was like from now on I'm taking off Fridays. I'm not going to work on Friday, saturday or Sunday, I'm just taking long weekends every weekend. I started watching myself pay more attention to the other four days and I get as much or more done in those four days than I did five, because now the time allotted I make good use of. That's right.

Speaker 2:

And when you've got an extra day, you're like I'll do it tomorrow, I'll do it later. No, we're going to do it in four days and I can't tell you what that's done for me and I've encouraged a lot of people to do that and they are now and they're seeing the same results. It's the you hyper-focus those four days. Uh. So I would just encourage you that Wally said to take some time off, start somewhere, Don't. Don't say I can't do anything. That that's. That's not true. I would just say that's not true. You can take some time off, work into a day off to rest, rejuvenate yourself. What's the point, otherwise right.

Speaker 1:

You kill yourself. What are we doing it for, right, yeah there's no point.

Speaker 2:

What are we?

Speaker 1:

doing it for.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you just work and work, and work, and you don't have any opportunity to enjoy your family or the resources that you've acquired as a result of working that hard. I promise you it's not going to serve you well long term, and so just think through that. The thing that I do like to do, though, is have moments of stillness, and for me you've been listening to us. We're over 100 episodes now. You know I love the hot tub, and I get in the hot tub early, like 4, 4.30 in the morning. I get up really early. I enjoy getting up early, and I'll go out, sit in the hot tub for 30 to 45 minutes, and it's there's no electronics out there.

Speaker 2:

I actually wired it for electronics. Well, I didn't ever put them up. Robin told me she goes. We got some rules here. I said, all right, what is it? She said no electronics, no TV, no speakers, no telephone, nothing. And I'm like, yeah, and we built like this cabana that goes over it. So it doesn't matter what the weather is it can snow or rain, it doesn't matter. That works for you. And I want to tell you something. I'm a person of faith, and I feel like God really talks to me, because I'm not praying for something, I'm not asking for something. I'm being still and I'm listening. And so what about you, wally? Where's a still place for you? Moment of stillness.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, part of my routine in the morning when I follow through with it right is my back patio here in Tennessee. You know weather is pretty good, especially early mornings. Weather is usually pretty good, even if it's hot out during the day, as long as the humidity is not too high. But my back patio we got a pool out there. It not too high, but but my back patio, uh, we got a pool out there. It's got little bubblers on it.

Speaker 1:

So in the early morning it's like it's like gurgling and uh, just peaceful and still, and I can sit there with my feet up on the little recliner out there and, man, I can just uh, I can just close my eyes and be in peace. I haven't done this in a while but, uh, I need, I'd like to. I just haven't made a priority is ride my mountain bike. I haven't done it in a couple of months and fall is coming up, so I need to get it on the calendar and I'll follow through. But I like being on my mountain bike and just riding and, you know, talking to God and listening and it's pretty good.

Speaker 2:

So I don't know if this is possible. I'm asking you to do something publicly that I don't even know that we can do. But I've got a real favorite video of mine of you riding your mountain bike. Can we put that in the show notes? Is that possible for somebody to see that and you'll see how much he enjoys riding this bike.

Speaker 1:

It's just I'm not even going to spill the beans, you can't even tell. Number one of counterintuitive ways to 10X your life. Number one is what Prioritize? Rest and renewal. Number two invest in relationships you have over revenue. What does that mean?

Speaker 2:

You're trying to get away from the mountain bike thing and I'm not going to let that go for a second. We're going to have to put that link in there and then we can have a fun time of conversation around it. So you listeners out there, you be sure and email us. He'll give you an email address requesting that video. We're going to get it to you guys to see. Okay, now I'm through talking about that, so let's go into investing relationships over revenue.

Speaker 1:

Let me ask you the question again. So number two is investing relationships over revenue. What does that mean?

Speaker 2:

Well, it's our first core value. Relationships matter most. I mean, there is nothing more important than the relationship, right? People ask me all the time hey, what's your secret sauce? All these businesses you've owned, like what has been really important to you? And I say it's the relationship. They're always expecting me to say if you do this, you'll make more money. And I'm always like you got to pay attention to the people, because if you invest in the relationship, the revenue will take care of itself. If you'll stay busy trying to, the revenue will take care of itself.

Speaker 2:

Don't think how to make the sale. Think how I can add more value. What is it that I can do to change Wally's life or Bobby's life? What is it that we can do here? What is it that I can do to connect him? What are the resources I can give him to help him? How can I encourage him? How can I challenge him? What other products? If I'm a products guy, like what more could I do?

Speaker 2:

Dan Miller everybody knows I love Dan Miller. Dan died this past year and we lost a great one in him, but he would always talk about adding a little extra and we were in a mastermind together for two decades, and so I would see him always want to add a little extra, like here's a white paper, here's a link to this. He had these boxes that he would put his book 48 Days to the Work you Love in and he would put 48 mints in the box because 48 days and I'm like Dan, he goes hey man, you got to give extra. You always got to be thinking about the relationships and Dan did well financially and the revenue came. But I just think it's really important that we really focus on the relationships, that's, in our family and our businesses, everywhere we're at. If we'll just focus on the people, the revenue will take care of itself.

Speaker 1:

But what does that mean, though? Like what we're saying, this is a counterintuitive way to 10 X Right? So, like, I'm just going to challenge you for a moment, like, how does this, how does relationships? Like, yeah, the revenue will come, but how is it 10 X, like?

Speaker 2:

what 10 X? But it doesn't necessarily. It's not a numeric value that we can place on it. 10 X for me is just greater than it's better, and so for me, the relationship you're counterintuitive, because most people are looking to cut. How can we cut this out? How can we maximize our profit? What is it that we can do to make a little bit more money?

Speaker 2:

The sole focus historically has been on the bottom line. What are our margins? How can we make more? How can we add a percent or 10%? It's like well, wait a minute, hold on.

Speaker 2:

This is counterintuitive to the way most people think, but it's like what?

Speaker 2:

If we go above and beyond and we do something that's outstanding, we do something better than the competition in regards to customer service, caring about individuals. Now there's a novel idea caring about people and I think it's a lost art. I think it's something that's forgotten oftentimes today, and what I've seen as a result of that in every business I've ever owned when you do focus on that, you feel better about yourself. Your personal mission statement is accomplished, you're aiding someone else to accomplish their goals and dreams. And I'll tell you something else those people are going to want to be around you more than the guy that's cutting out the other fringe benefits and making his margin better. When you call that guy or help that guy, so when I say it's counterintuitive to our normal thought process, flip it on its head and say how can I do this differently and better so that I endear myself with this person, this customer, this client, this family, individual and stand above the crowd is to 10X and invest in relationships over revenue.

Speaker 1:

When you invest in relationships, yeah, the revenue will come. I believe that too. I'm in the camp, as you, but often we think about, so often ourselves. We think about we're the ones that are generating it all. So does 10X come, not just money, but does 10X value right In our lives come from, like those relationships, yeah, so if we're investing in the relationships in our marriages with our children, in our business, like our team members, right, we're not being dictators, we're actually being leaders. Right, we're loving them and serving them and then-.

Speaker 2:

You're impacting their lives, right yeah?

Speaker 1:

How much more effective is your business going to be? Which? Ultimately increases the revenue right If you treat customers with respect and you invest in the relationship and a customer right. They're the ones that spend any of the money, so the better you do that overall. It doesn't have to all be you.

Speaker 2:

That's the point, like in the relationships you're going to have people in your business. You just build a culture of that. Then everybody around you wants to do those things and your businesses are going to grow when people know that they're valued way beyond any financial transaction and you're like you really care about me. You care about me as an individual. You're giving me extra Like why are you doing this? Because you matter. Relationships matter most and if you want a 10X in any area of your life, you'll do that. I know we're running out of time, but listen, relationships are the real revenue. Just quite honestly, if you think about that, that's the real revenue that you're going to capitalize on long-term. I mean, you're going to always be able to call that person, talk to that person. They'll do favors for you, they'll help you, they'll walk with you, they'll encourage you, they'll be by your side, they'll take up for you, they'll defend you. They'll do all these things.

Speaker 1:

If you put the relationship I just want to jump in here real quick on that one that you often will point out something that I've done well and I'm grateful for that. I'm appreciative of that. You do it on the podcast often. I don't often give you a return, not because you don't do things well, it's just that you're a much nicer person than I am. But I do want to point this out right now is that you do this really well, and I was actually thinking a couple of weeks ago I was doing something taking a walk. I've been trying to walk at night and you know I have great friendships. Isi, especially Mastermind, has really helped me develop some deep relationships and it's helped me look beyond my own walls and even connect with my neighbors more, and so I'm very grateful for building some good relationships, relationships there.

Speaker 1:

But I have not, over time, what I would say built up a lot of relationship capital, and not that I want to go spend it.

Speaker 1:

That's not the point.

Speaker 1:

To your point, like we love to help each other, we again, we were just on a forge episode that we recorded and these guys are giving of their time to help this other guy out, right, it's amazing, and so like you have done an amazing job at that of giving, expecting nothing in return, and building up good relationship capital.

Speaker 1:

Not that you ever even cash it in or spend it it's not why you did it Right but you have it and you know it's interesting in some ways. I find that like a little bit of selfish in a way, like I realize I haven't always done a great job at that and I look at somebody like you and go well, you have. There are times when you have lent your relationship capital to me and I see you doing that with other people, so you're helping other people, which is building relationships by cashing in some relationship capital you have with somebody else. Right, it's not always like dollar for dollar. It's not what I mean. I think you understand what I mean, but you've done a good job at modeling that and I just want to say thank you for that.

Speaker 2:

I know a lot of guys in ISI and otherwise.

Speaker 1:

They really appreciate that modeling from you.

Speaker 2:

Virtual hug coming your way, Wally. So there you go.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much, man. I appreciate that Number three, last one.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, simplicity is better and a lot of you listening to this are new in your careers or you're three, four years into it. You know I'm kind of down the path a little bit in regards to my career, but I just want to tell you sometimes less is more. When you really prioritize what's important in your life and you think through how I can be, you know an inch wide and a mile deep. A lot of people I coach, a lot of people I see, are an inch deep and a mile wide. They're trying to accomplish so much. Then they have a sense of frustration. They don't really accomplish anything to any magnitude in any area of their life because they're spread so thin. So I just want to encourage the listener instead of adding more tasks or commitments or goals to your life, why don't you strategically eliminate what doesn't align with your core mission and when you start thinking through what it is that you want to accomplish?

Speaker 2:

I've got a friend of mine that quits something every month and he continues to narrow his focus and only do the things that are really moving the needle, making the impact. By simplifying, you really focus on what truly matters and you amplify your impact in those areas, and so we don't have to accomplish everything, we don't have to appease everyone, we don't have to do those things. It's like pray through, think through, create the vision and what is it that matters in your life? Narrow the focus and then go. I'm going to be amazing at that focus and then go. I'm going to be amazing at that. And so I think, if we do that, we'll come to the same conclusion that simplicity is really better and you can be more impactful.

Speaker 1:

So I want to just point out I just realized this how all three of these counterintuitive ways to 10X your life tie together. So, first one being rest and renewal right, we take a moment for ourselves to be able to get our head screwed on straight and realize what's important for us, and we're going to naturally invest in relationships. Next right, and then simplicity is better. I see this often when guys start trying to create goals for the first time. Or they're like hey, my marriage isn't, you know, I need to spend some time in my marriage. Like okay, so what's practically you can do? And they give you a list of like 20 things. It's like no, no, no, no, no. Simplicity, right.

Speaker 1:

Like like, if you have a good relationship with your wife, if you worked at that, you can ask her, like appropriately, ask her what's important to her with your children, ask them what's important, right, Then do those things, not 20. They're never going to say do 20 things. They're going to give you two, maybe three, with your team members and your customers. Same way, If you've got a relationship, you can ask hey, what's important to you? Do those things, Don't do the things you think are important.

Speaker 2:

It's usually the little things too, right? Yeah, it's usually. Yeah, you think it's going to be these ginormous things, and it's usually the little things because simplicity really leads to clarity. When you really start narrowing your focus, when you declutter your mind and you schedule the things that you do and you have these business processes, you gain clarity and it makes it easier to discern God's direction for your life and it really then honors both your faith and your family, because now you're doing the things that matter.

Speaker 2:

There's a great book out Greg McEwen wrote, called Essentialism. It's been around a long time, but if you haven't read that book by chance, I would encourage you strongly to get a copy of that book. But you know, wally, I just thought it'd be cool to talk about these things that are counterintuitive to what most people are talking about, just to kind of reorient our focus. And it was a shorter episode today and that was by design. We wanted to just come in and say, hey, you guys, think about some of the things that you're doing that you could simplify your life. I want to challenge you to kind of rethink the way you approach growth and the success in your life as you're planning out your strategy and your vision.

Speaker 2:

We've discussed how the world often pressures us to kind of hustle harder, chase that revenue, fill every moment with activity, but what is the real key to multiplying your life's impact lies in doing the exact opposite, and that's why we wanted to bring you these three things today to kind of think through. First, you want to prioritize rest and renewal. Then you want to invest in those relationships over revenue, and then, finally, we want you to embrace strategic simplicity Because, trust us on this, less is more, and by eliminating what doesn't align with your core mission, you create that space for what truly matters in life. So this will allow you to amplify your impact and gain clarity in every single area of your life. Simplicity is the shortcut to success. Hey, I encourage you today to take these counterintuitive path and you too can go out and create that view from the top.

Speaker 1:

Hey guys, as we finish up today, what an amazing episode. Take these three things, think about them, rest into them, put them into your routine and take action on them. And, as you do, I want to encourage you as our sponsor of the episode today ISI Community. If you go out to isibrotherhoodcom, get connected intoa community of men, christian men, that are growth-minded, running businesses, leading their families well, serving their wives and their children. Man, love to have you in there, love to see you there. That's isidebrotherhoodcom. And use the code POD30 at checkout and we'll give you 30 days free just to get in there and check it out, just for being a listener on the pod. Well, we will see you in there in the community, or we will see you here next week.